May the grace and peace of the Lord Jesus be with you. The line above is taken from the first Preface for Lent from the Sacramentary. It gives us some indications about the intent of the Church for this holy season. First, it is a gift to us from God, and, like all of God's gifts, we can choose to cooperate with it or we can choose to ignore it. Second, it is described as a "joyful season." Ordinarily, "joyful season" is not what leaps to mind when we consider Lent. If that is the case, perhaps we need to bring our thinking concerning this season more into line with what the Church intends this season to be for us. We may find it difficult to characterize this as a joyful season because we often immediately ascribe to Lent thoughts of deprivation, fasts, abstinences, and other ascetical practices, with the consequence that we may, consciously or unconsciously, look at Lent most of all from the point of view of what is it going to cost my flesh? This is not an approach that is usually particularly joy-inducing. Our flesh hates to die and when it complains, all too often we join right in. Yet the Church still describes it as a "joyful season"--perhaps because the Church's attitude is not oriented toward flesh-protection, but rather toward our salvation. The Lord Jesus desires to set us free. Lent is one of His ways of doing just that. By inviting us to focus more on our relationship with her Lord, the Church knows that the consequence of this should be joy, because the more we surrender to the Lord Jesus Himself, the greater will be the release of love, joy, peace, and the other fruits of the Spirit in our lives. The more His Spirit rules, the less our flesh rules; this makes for joy in our hearts, as His Spirit reigns more in us.

What is the focus of our preparation as we surrender more deeply to the Lord Jesus during this season? It is none other than the heart of His mission: His Paschal Mystery, i.e. His Passion, Death, and Resurrection. This is our focus as we prepare. Notice, that it is meant to be a preparation of both "hearts and minds." In other words, this is a time to grow both in our love for Him and our knowledge of Him and His ways. Our devotional and ascetical practices in Lent should include both these aspects of who we are. The orientation is toward renewing both of them. Renewing our hearts, that the Great Commandment would in fact be lived out in us: that we would love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. Renewing our minds, that we would be more and more immersed in the Truth that is setting us free. Of course, the best way that we can cooperate with the grace of this holy season is by participating more often in the Paschal Mystery itself by participating more often in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. There our minds can be renewed as we reflect on the Scriptures and the content of the prayers, and our hearts can be renewed as we receive the Eucharist, with its sanctifying graces of faith, hope, and love. If we did nothing else for Lent but went to Mass more often, we would still be doing what is most important, for the key to being renewed is to spend time with the Renewer! There is no better way to do that than by joining in the celebration of the Mass. May the Lord Jesus give us a deeper and deeper hunger for His holy Presence in this great Sacrament! I commend you to the care of the Mother of God and the protection of St. Michael.

Fr. Ed